Ben Doherty is an experienced journalist working for Guardian Australia, and formerly a Fairfax foreign correspondent in East Asia.
This is his first novel, based on his knowledge of modern India and, in particular, his links with the Naga of the far northeast of that subcontinent.
While in Delhi, Doherty played in a band, meeting Augustine Shimray, a Naga from the village of Ukhrul, who was a singer-songwriter and guitarist in another band sharing the same gigs. Doherty visited Ukhrul, listened to Augustine's stories and turned this friendship into a novel.
Like the plot devices of early 19th-century European literature, Doherty begins his narrative by outlining the circumstances of his acquaintanceship with Augustine, which is deepened when, in 2015, he receives a diary, written in Tankhul, Augustine's local Naga language, containing Augustine's story, fragments of song lyrics and poetry, and drawings of mountains and birds. There is also a bookmark, the feather of a hornbill, a bird whose cultural significance resonates throughout the book.
From his conversations with Augustine and the contents of the diary, Doherty weaves a real-life love story, the foredoomed romance between Augustine and Akala, who lived in neighbouring villages that did not permit intermarriage between them, a custom with its origins in ancient tribal rivalries.
Doherty enlarges the context of their romance appropriate to our all-knowing 21st century, where "tribals" watch Bollywood fantasies on their televisions and communicate with lovers by cellphones, and where the politics of modern India, dictated by Hindu nationalism, make the lives of internal immigrants (and Doherty is the "immigrant correspondent" of Guardian Australia; a sensitive post in Southeast Asia) subject to a local racism that is both palpable and life-threatening.
He gives appalling insights into life in modern India, from Nagaland to Delhi, revealing the disparity between metropolitan Hindus and the other peoples that make up the rich tapestry of Indian culture, all of whom have their own inter-caste and inter-tribal prejudices that make for conflict and mutual misunderstanding. In this respect, Doherty's novel resembles, in both its specificity and breadth, Arundhati Roy's celebrated work The God of Small Things.
Within this wider political context, Doherty's narrative retains its focus on the love story and the biography of Augustine Shimray. His skill is in writing two narrative sections within each chapter; the first following the life of Augustine before he met his lover, Akala, and the second the progress of the romance itself after their meeting.
The first, and longer, sections include Naga folk stories told to Augustine by his father, Naga history and way of life before the 21st century, the relationship of Nagas with the greater India after Partition, the corruption that is rife in everyday life, racial prejudice, the chaotic and unjust education system, the atrocious health services, human trafficking, drug addictions and HIV/Aids, as well as rigid customs that preclude sexual and social freedoms as we understand them.
The two narratives gradually engage the reader to such an extent that we share the anger of Augustine as he struggles with living a life between cultures, both intertribal and interracial, trying to hold on to the Naga traditions that nourish his identity and those that threaten his freedom to live a life with wider possibilities for personal fulfilment, an identity crisis faced by many cultures today.
This is a love story, told with passion and empathy, but also through the lens of an awareness of the tragedy of cultural fragmentation that we read about every day in the ubiquitous media.
This is a wonderful book-well written and deeply felt.
Peter Stupples, now living in Wellington, used to teach at the University of Otago.
Win a copy
• The Weekend Mix has three copies of Nagaland, by Ben Doherty, courtesy of Wild Dingo Press, to give away. For your chance to win a copy, email playtime@odt.co.nz with your name and postal address in the body of the email and "Nagaland" in the subject line by Tuesday, June 19.
Winners
Winners of Elizabeth Macarthur, by Michelle Scott, courtesy of Text Publishing, are Own Lawn, Fiona Crombie, Lesley Burns and Margaret Bahr, of Dunedin.
